SCOTT McTOMINAY has lifted the lid on what keeps Manchester United’s conveyor belt of young talent moving.
Tomorrow’s visit of Everton will be the 4,000th straight game in which a product of the club’s academy will be part of the match day squad.
No other club comes close to such a record.
McTominay says it is all about attention to detail in moulding the kids as people as well as players.
Right down to what colour boots they wear. Nothing flash or else – and McTominay is watching.
The 23-year-old said: “I probably couldn’t tell you one player in the club who likes wearing black boots.
“But it was the rules and something accustomed to every academy player and if someone tried to come out in red boots it’s like ‘you’re no different to any of us so get your black boots back on until you earn the respect and right to wear coloured boots’.
“I didn’t like the black boots. But you had to do it. You had to respect the rules.
“There are no big egos, there’s no young kids coming in wearing jewellery and looking a bit flash, that’s not the case at this club.
“If a young player is doing that in the canteen, I would certainly be one to say something and the same with other boys in the first-team, and the manager as well.
“They’re just fine details that bring you up as a person, it brings you up to be respectful, hard-working, humble and respect those around you.
“Whenever we were growing up here, the main thing that was being spoken about here was being a good person first and foremost.
“You don’t realise at the time how much little things like that at the time are going to help you.
“You think ‘this is rubbish’ and ‘what’s going on?’ but then you get older, you look back and you think all of those little things have stood you in so much good stead.
“Now I look back and, being one of the older academy players now, those standards have been passed through, so everybody has the idea of what a Manchester United player should look and be like, the DNA that comes with wearing that badge.”
How the players behave off the pitch and how they are on it is different though.
McTominay says: “A Man United person is always someone who’s polite, humble, got respect for people, but as soon as they get on the pitch they’ve always got that little bit of an edge to them, they’re always different to other players.
“Whenever league managers ask a reserve team manager for a Man Utd player, they always know what type of person and player they’re getting.”
It is refreshing to hear McTominay talk like this at a time when fans can get turned off by flash players flaunting their wealth.
He is exactly the sort of person and player that manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer recognises from his own time in the United team
The fans have taken to him for his displays in midfield, his 100 per cent commitment and clear passion for the club
He is also clearly inspired by the club’s history, something all the young players are immediately made aware of when they join with a trip to the club’s museum.
He said: “We used to go to the museum all the time.
“When you see the amount of trophies that are there it is amazing.”
In tomorrow’s squad there will be six academy products with McTominay joined by Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard, if fit, on the pitch, while Axel Tuanzebe, Brandon Williams and Mason Greenwood are likely to be on the bench.
The run of 4,000 games goes back to 1937 and a 1-0 defeat by Fulham. An incredible stat that the club are rightly proud of.
Everton are next best at just over 1,000, a run that ended in August.
McTominay said: “It’s amazing. Whenever we were in the youth team, we always had different members of staff saying to us about the consecutive games we’ve always had with a youth player from the academy.
“When you think you have 50 to 60 games a season, to get to 4,000 is incredible and a real credit to the members of staff who have invested so much time in every player who has contributed to those games.
“You have to have top, top class players, but then you also have to have top, top young players who are wanting to come in and learn as well.
“That’s the balance that not every club and team in the world can get. But this place is special. I’ve said it many times before and now we’re coming back up.”
Coming back with a homegrown core at it’s heart. Something that will be celebrated at Old Trafford tomorrow.
